DETROIT, MI -- The mayoral candidate who raised the lawsuit that got former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan ordered off the August ballot believes the letter of the law makes an appeal of the court decision futile.

"Duggan is free to appeal to the state courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, the World Court at The Hague and even Capt. Kirk's United Federation of Planets, the result will be the same because the decision is rooted in the case law and state statutes," Barrow said.

Duggan was just as confident that the ruling will be overturned.

Detroit mayoral candidate Mike Duggan in a press conference at his election office Wednesday said he plans to appeal a court order to remove his name from the August ballot.(Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

"The reason Tom Barrow is trying to get me off the ballot is because if Detroiters get a chance to decide, it isn't going to be close," Duggan said.

Duggan, widely considered one of the front runners in the election along with Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, moved into the city last year and launched a mayoral campaign in February.

He hadn't yet been a registered Detroit voter for a full year when he filed his petitions signatures for the mayoral race on April 2.

He became a registered resident on April 16, 2012.

The Detroit City Charter requires a candidate to be have been a registered city voter for one year "at the time of filing for office."

Duggan argued that the intent of the law was to require a year of residency by the May 14 filing deadline, rather than by the actual date of filing.

"The deadline is May 14," he said. "I was a registered voter 13 months before. To have anything else is a moving target. It would be an absurdity...

"The charter language is very badly drafted... Reading it literally makes no sense. You have to look at what the intent was."

He said the charter language taken literally would indicate that a person would have to be a resident for exactly one year, no more or less, to be a valid candidate.

Barrow in his statement issued after Duggan's Wednesday press conference said the former Wayne County Prosecutor should "move on."

"For Duggan to continue this futile legal fight is a waste of resources, and is in fact divisive for the city, where the decision restored confidence in the judicial system, his attempt to appeal continues to create an atmosphere of privilege where money trumps the law," Barrow said.

"Duggan needs to heed the advice he has offered so many times as a prosecutor and that is to accept the decision and move on with his life and allow Detroiters to seek out the leadership they deserve to move the city forward."

The next Detroit mayor will likely remain under the shadow of state-appointed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr until at least September 2014, unless lawsuits challenging the state's financial emergency law are successful. But 15 candidates are vying for the spot.

The August primary will send the top two vote-getters to the November general election ballot.

Other candidates in the race include State Reps. Fred Durhal, Jr. and John Olumba, former state Rep. Lisa Howze, former top city attorney Krystal Crittendon, former Detroit Public Schools Superintendent John Telford and socialist D’Artagnan Collier.